We started the tradition last year of having readers vote for their Best and Worst, and then we here at Lamley would announce our selections. There is one choice that I still get asked about, and that was naming the Mad Manga as our 2012 Hot Wheels Model of the Year. It confused a lot of collectors, and some still wonder how we could have fallen off our rockers so badly.

But we loved how the Manda introduced collectors, especially those in the US, to a car subculture they knew nothing about, bosozoku. We loved the reaction many collectors had to it, good and bad. It caused a stir, and that is why we chose it.

(Incidentally, we have already chosen our 2013 Model of the Year, and will reveal it after the voting is completed. I wonder if any of you can guess what it is…)

Nonetheless, we have seen two more versions of the Manga since its initial release, and we remain big fans. In fact, the 2014 version with Falken racing livery may be the best version yet. So we thought it deserved its own post on Lamley.

It seems to me that in the last year at least that many of the muscle-centric collectors on HWC have softened to the Japanese cars Hot Wheels has released. The Datsun 510 Wagon has remained very popular, the Toyota 2000GT has a landslide lead in the Best Super vote, and over on the RLC boards, the first images of the RLC exclusive BRE 510 caused quite the stir when they were posted yesterday. Collectors are realizing there is a place for these models in the mainline, and I think we have also seen an influx of new collectors into the hobby now that the Japanese cars they have always loved are getting attention from the world’s largest toy company.

We love the Manga, and love this Falken livery with gold rims. Now the true test will be how many collectors pick this one up at Kdays. We will find out Saturday…